Head Founder of Texas-based Juko-Kai International

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Monthly Archives: March 2016

Soke Rod Sacharnoski is a longtime U.S. martial arts leader who developed the pioneering Juko-ryu Combat-Ki system. Emphasizing methods of internal breathing and mental control, Rod Sacharnoski’s discipline has been featured in publications such as Kung Fu Magazine, Black Belt magazine, and a host of others.

While co-starring with his partner and close friend, the late Ed Parker (Elvis Presley’s Karate Instructor and Bodyguard), Rod accepted a full-power knife-hand strike to the relaxed adams apple on the movie set of Buckstone County Prison. The blow was thrown by James Bacon, who also co-starred in the motion picture and who wrote for more than 500 syndicated newspapers. In an article that was published in the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Bacon stated that Rod set movie history—it was the first known time that an actor accepted a full-power, highly dangerous, actual blow to the throat in a motion picture. In motion pictures, all blows and kicks are pulled to prevent injury to the actors. The film, Buckstone County Prison, was shot in 1978 at the EO Motion Picture Studios in North Carolina.

Rod and his team have appeared in feature demonstrations on approximately 25 major television shows, and actually set a world record on the highly rated “Fox Sports Science” television production for taking a 1,100 pound-per-square-in kick to the testicles. Many of Rod’s television shows are monitored by medical doctors and teams who measure the impact that the Combat-Ki practitioners are struck with.

Practitioners who volunteer for Combat-Ki training gain skills in taking kicks, strikes, and punches to the human body without suffering from injuries. Combat-Ki techniques focus on controlled use of the mind, body, balance and internal energy breathing.

Becoming adept at Combat-Ki is a lengthy process that involves intensive training and represents one of the most dangerous demonstrations of the modern-day martial arts. Combat-Ki has been featured on a number of Japanese martial arts-focused TV shows in which championship K-1 fighters kicked, stuck and punched Combat-Ki masters in the vital areas of their bodies with no effect.

In an interview with the Journal of Asian Martial Arts, Curtis Wong, Editor of Inside Kung-Fu magazine, stated that Soke Sacharnoski and his team gave one of the most impressive demonstrations of Ki (internal energy) that he had ever seen. He went on to elaborate that some of the most experienced and well known Masters, at a demo at Inside Kung-Fu Headquartes in Hollywood, repeatedly struck and kick Rod and his members to no avail. This included a full-power kick to the head.

Rod Sacharnoski is an American martial arts grandmaster. One of the very few holders of the ninth degree grandmaster ranking in Okinawan Shorin-ryu Karate, Toide, and Kobudo, Rod Sacharnoski earned his fierce reputation internationally in martial arts by first mastering his Kijutsu (internal energy).

Kijutsu refers to an individual’s control of his internal energy. This internal energy is the unseen force in your body that powers your physical movements and is manifested in your strength and mood.

For martial artists, Kijutsu is the point where the mind and the body are in sync with each other, allowing the fighter to manifest power in some form. It entails two aspects: concentration and extension. Traditional martial arts grandmasters could concentrate their energy to their abdomen, bringing their mind and body in tune, absent the conscious. They could then extend this energy to a certain part of their body to increase the power in their punch or kick.

Whereas scientific opinion has been divided on whether internal energy and its control actually exists, the concept of Kijutsu is still very much alive in modern day martial arts.